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Why all the over-the-top mourning for President Ford?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by TigerVols, Dec 29, 2006.

  1. TigerVols

    TigerVols Well-Known Member

    Good heavens, the media and the gov't are acting like George Washington died...Flags at half-mast for days, Wall Street shut down -- along with the gov't for an impromptu paid holiday -- on Tuesday, body lying (laying?) in state in an unprecedented two locations in the Capital; the LA Times has run huge front page stories about Ford again and again...Isn't this overkill for a man who was never elected to national office?

    Did we do all this for Reagan?
     
  2. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Yeah, about 1,000 times over.
     
  3. zeke12

    zeke12 Guest

    Oh, yeah.

    It was way more than this for Reagan.

    We might take it over the top, but it's how we honor our leaders.
     
  4. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    The body is lying in state. In the Capitol with an "o."

    And who cares that he was never elected to national office? He was the President of the United States just the same as if he had won all 50 states in the Electoral College in '76.
     
  5. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I don't detect over-mourning at all. The established protocol is flags fly at half-staff for 30 days after the passing of any president. Even Nixon got that. (Reagan's was cut short because of the July 4 holiday, IIRC.) As for the LAT, it's a local story for them because he lived in SoCal and the first memorial is in Palm Desert.
     
  6. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    Until Reagan's death the only presidents who had passed away in my lifetime were LBJ and Nixon. I was a kid when LBJ died so I don't remember what was done at that time but Nixon, for obvious reasons, did not receive the state funeral that goes with a former president's passing.

    For anybody under 40, Reagan's funeral was the first presidential state funeral they've ever seen. This is how we honor our presidents. Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush will receive the same treatment unless they specify otherwise in their wills.

    Along with being a president, Ford was also a congressman, which is why he is lying in state in two locations at the Capitol.
     
  7. Are you serial?
    Reagan's was a weeklong passion play that carried over into the RNC in NYC.
    This is a combination of a) the slowest news week of the year, b) the Woodward interview, and c) the sudden recollection that Republican politicians were not always insane.
    AQB -- LBJ's was pomp, but very little circumstance and, of course, there was no 24-hour news cycle to feed, but I recall decently sized network coverage. The other ones I remember being covered widely from my youth -- outside of JFK's which was sui generis -- were Eisenhower's and (oddly) Churchill's, which got extensive coverage in the states.
     
  8. crimsonace

    crimsonace Well-Known Member

    Nixon could have had the state funeral, but declined in his will (for obvious reasons).
     
  9. 21

    21 Well-Known Member

    Next question?

    (Not trivializing the honors due a late president, but in the days of 3 networks and get-up-to-change-the-channel viewing, you wouldn't get 24 hour coverage of this...but hey, still better than more Hillary predictions...)
     
  10. Nixon still got the huge coverage and the attendance of all the living Ex's, and a speech from Bill Clinton.
     
  11. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    He didn't lie in state in D.C. though. Or if he did I don't remember it.
     
  12. D-Backs Hack

    D-Backs Hack Guest

    In a related development, the first "Watergate was nothing compared to what Bill Clinton put this country through!" letter appeared on my rag's opinion page.

    So if you had Friday in the pool, you won!
     
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